Archive for February, 2009

Why Sleeping Beauty Wasn't Fat

People who desire to lose weight should examine their sleep cycles as much as their eating habits before going on any kind of diet. If they aren't getting at least seven to eight hours a night they may need more sack time in order to be sucessful at any kind of weight loss plan.

While it stands to reason that if people spent more time in bed they would have less time to think about food and eating the wrong things – the greater benefit, if you can believe this, is that people who sleep longer actually have a greater sense of fullness and will spontaneously lose weight. Could this be the famous, Lose Weight While You Sleep Diet, or is this actual fat-busting science at work?

Forget about the fads and the pills that claim to have you losing weight while you sleep. It turns out that sleep may be the easiest and cheapest treatment for obeisty there is. Our fat-busting scientists have identified hormones in our bodies that have an effect on feelings of both hunger and fullness. Sleep deprivation can cause an imbalance of hormones in favor of hungry hormones (ghrelin) over the ones responsible for making us feel full (leptin) making us feel hungry even when we really aren't. Ergo we eat. Combine this condition with what I call head hunger (wanting more when you feel full) and you have a situation where your diet can be seriously de-railed.   

More From Lowcarb Marine

• New Fat-Busting Science – Fact Or Fiction Part 4
• New Fat-Busting Science – Fact Or Fiction Part 5
• Low Carb vs Low Fat

Stress Can Make You Fat

I believe that stress is the main reason I fall off the healthy food wagon occasionally, finding it near impossible to resist my old comfort foods when stress gets the better of me. It's so easy to say to yourself, whew!, I had a really hard day, I deserve a "fill in the blanks" – cocktail, chocolate bar, pasta dish, mashed potatoes, bread, etc. All the stuff that got me into trouble in the first place just cause I had a total jerk for a boss.Toss in a couple of financial issues and watch the high-carb food monster take over!

The problem is that the boss ain't going anywhere soon and I am the one that suffers the consequences of a binge. While it feels heavenly to my taste buds and soothes my stress hormones (yes, there are such things) giving in to carb cravings because of stress at work or kids or bills, etc, is just going to make things worse. When the last donut, cookie, cake, pie, etc has slid down the high-carb highway into my stomach all I have to show for it is a sweet taste in my mouth and a bitter reminder of my weakness for sugar. Plus I just added more negative energy to my stress levels by giving in to temptation. How can sugar make you so high and then so low within minutes? Why can't I capture that exact feeling of guilt and failure that I feel when I cheat before I eat the high carb stuff – what rotten little devil on my shoulder makes me do it?

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More From Lowcarb Marine

• New Fat-Busting Science – Fact Or Fiction- Part 1
• Out Of The Corps
• New Fat-Busting Science – Fact Or Fiction – Part 6

President Obama was just in my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona and it was pretty cool to see Air Force One touch down at Sky Harbor Airport and follow his motorcade down streets I travel every day. He was here to recognize our city as one of the hardest hit areas in the nation's foreclosure crisis of which I was one. I was impressed with the fact that he came here from Denver where he signed the $787. billion stimulus package. How cool is it that the new President would venture outside the capital to travel to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, just to make a point about how the legislation is crucial to injecting new life into the nation's depressed economy?

What impressed me even more about President Obama was when he announced today that he would be sending about 8,000 marines from Iraq to Afghanistan. Excuse me but didn't I suggest that very thing yesterday? In keeping with my Get Marines Out Of Iraq plan the president is doing exactly as I hoped he would. I expect a call from the White House any minute to discuss the details of the how and when.

More From Lowcarb Marine

• Out Of The Corps
• Proud To Wear The Uniform Of United States Marine
• The Patton Plan Has Marines Vote

The Cheater In The Weight Loss Game Is Fat

How is it that a short, fat guy – 5'9" tall and weighing in at 240 like me could possibly be considered healthier than men much taller and thinner? In spite of my allergy to regular exercise I still manage five sets of 10-pound fork presses at the dinner table, am able to regularly walk 3 miles a day, play vigorously with my chocolate lab, camp in my RV and dance like Arthur Murray on Saturday nights. I should be in shape, right? then why is it that whenever I see a picture of myself I want to crawl into a bed of pasta and hide? I read somewhere that fat doesn't play fair and now I am beginning to understand why.

Eating Less And Working Out More Does Not Necessarily Translate Into Weight Loss

Surprised? Well, so were we. But as we delved further into this subject we started to believe. When something sounds plausible, it's easier to put yourself in a frame of mind where you desire to know more about the science behind it, especially when it comes to helping us understand our bodies. Scientists in this field tell us that if we have more than one "fatso" gene we are more likely to get diabetes and that the only way to offset the effect of these genes is to exercise.  There are other implications that suggest we are on the frontiers of understanding things about obesity that we never knew existed. Things that we never took seriously, those concepts that were really out there – hormonal imbalances, genes, etc that we now can openly discuss. With the anonymity of the internet we can discover what fat-busting science has known for years – and how it affects us as individuals.

Fat-Busting scientists, geeks who spend their days poking and probing chubby mice, experts in the field of epidemiology (the study of health in populations), have discovered these fat genes and can now discuss openly and convincingly about how genes, hormonal imbalances, some viruses, stress, even ear infections play a role in obesity. Ok, fine. All we want to know is – how do us regular folks find someone who can say with confidence; this is why you can't lose weight. Then tell us how we can!

That day may be closer than you think. Those chubby mice we talked about earlier taught scientists about the "fatso" genes in all of us. People with two or more fatso genes are more likely to develop diabetes and be more overweight. And they say that there could be as many as 100 fat genes out there! What does that say for our chances of losing weight just by diet alone? Maybe genetics plays more of a role than just the cute little dimple you inherited from your Mother. 

More From Lowcarb Marine

• New Fat-Busting Science – Fact Or Fiction Part 3
• New Fat-Busting Science – Fact Or Fiction Part 2
• New Fat-Busting Science – Fact Or Fiction – Part 6

I am just a joe average kind of guy, semi-retired patriot, former-marine, Viet Nam vet who served an entire year crouched behind a bunker, terrified of his shadow. Surprised? Hey, tell me how you would react when the bullets started flying your way? Besides, in all the confusion, nobody even noticed I was missing!

How was I to know they would be shooting real bullets (8 + months of marine training should have given me a clue), I was just this dumb kid from Florissant, MO, trying to survive. Speaking of bullets, do you know this little piece of usmc trivia: the bullet breaks the sound barrier when it passes over your head, making a horrible fire-cracker sound? You just don't hear the one that gets ya.

I propose that we get out of Iraq. Not everyone, hell, it's no secret that the Army is a great administrator. We leave those guys there until they get things worked out. You know, establish a puppet government that is controlled by and supported by the American CIA. A few Iraqians get rich, buy a bunch of shoes and retire to the Dakota in New York!  Am I saying that's a problem, of course not!

So stay tuned on the LCM network for the latest in how we get the marines out of Iraq. We need them in Afghanistan or Pakistan, wherever that scum bag Bin Laden is hiding. Some marine is going to capture this guy, single-handed, I can feel it. And he will be the greatest American marine hero since Chesty Puller – God rest his gung ho soul.

We are going to need the support of all Americans to accomplish this goal. With respect to our Army Ranger, Green Beret and Navy Seal friends, we must get the marines (all but a battalion) out of Iraq and into the deserts of Afghanistan. Forget about those Russian wussies, these are U.S. Marines we are talking about!

More From Lowcarb Marine

• Out Of The Corps
• Proud To Wear The Uniform Of United States Marine
• Marines In Viet Nam Could Have Used A "Mt. Suribachi" Of Their Own